Friday, March 09, 2007

CCHA Quarterfinals Game 1: Michigan 4, NMU 1

I completely agree with a lot of [James's post]...particularly that Billy played very well and looked confident doing it. He didn't give me the feeling that he was making saves by accident. That was in contrast to a lot of the games this year where he played well, but looked shaky doing it. Very nice to see.

TJ had 2 assists but he could've had at least 5 if the guys on our team were finishing plays tonight. It amazes me how every pass he makes somehow goes right through the slot. It doesn't matter where he's at or how many guys he has to go through, it's getting through. Brian (mgoblog) made a great comment tonight that if Andy Hilbert were on this team, TJ would probably have 80-90 points. So true....

Stewart was VERY shaky in the first period (the first two goals were really weak) but he turned the game on that save on Rohlfs. If it became 4-0, lights out. But instead they got a little momentum from the save, then came down and scored a goal that Billy would probably like back. Suddenly it's a hockey game again.

We must've hit 5 posts tonight.

Hensick had a highlight reel assist on the 3rd goal. The goal itself was ugly...Lebler and someone else both had pops at it and missed. Then it finally just snuck across the goal line. But TJ had the puck out by the blueline, 3 guys were on him. He hit the brakes, spun around em and had open ice to move toward the goal. Prettiest move he's made since that goal he had against ND in Fort Wayne a couple years back.

I thought we did a great job of keeping Santorelli in check. I barely noticed him out there tonight. Olver got robbed a couple times though.

Matt Hunwick played a really good game tonight IMO. Nice goal (even if the guy probably should've stopped it), he was pretty good about getting back on D, and he made a couple of really nice defensive plays. Definitely one of his better performances this year. Still not sure how he was 1st team All CCHA.

Loved the guy walking around with JMFJ written on an inside-out t-shirt (and the dry-erase board giving it some love too). It's definitely spreading!!

I was impressed with Stewart in the last two periods. Then again, after the first I was surprised they left him in ;-)

Michigan has to play better tonight than they did last night if they don't want to be at the rink tomorrow. I was just waiting for the patented goal with 5 minutes left that makes a game we've dominated REAAAALLY hairy down the stretch.

That was a long damn game it seemed like, because it just kept going back and forth. Only we somehow won 8-3. But in general, this was a pretty dominant weekend. 12-4 on goal differential and Billy is playing at least league-average. That's pretty decent, right? Also, unless Billy becomes suddenly dominant, I am very concerned about next year.

Concerned about next year because we won't have the offense to make up for defensive lapses? Yeah, me too.

If Porter and/or Cogs leave this summer, we're screwed next year. Even if they don't, point production will be way down. We won't see this team winning any 6-5, 7-3 games next year. Unfortunately, I see us being on the wrong side of 4-2's far too often.

If Cogs leaves we might be in a hurt because we won't have that elite center like a Hensick/Cogliano. If he comes back though, I feel like we're going to be in pretty good shape up front. We've got some REALLY good forwards coming in next year....we'll probably be deeper up front, even if we don't have the top-notch talent we've got this year.

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